1,000

RALEIGH, N.C. - A double murderer who said he didn't want to be known as a number became the 1,000th person executed in the United States since capital punishment resumed 28 years ago. Kenneth Lee Boyd, who brazenly gunned down his estranged wife and father-in-law 17 years earlier, died at 2:15 a.m. Friday after receiving a lethal injection. After watching Boyd die, Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page said the victims should be remembered.

(Read the whole article here, since it seems to be too long for a single post )

Boyd's attorney Thomas Maher, said the "execution of Kenneth Boyd has not made this a better or safer world. If this 1,000th execution is a milestone, it's a milestone we should all be ashamed of."

I simply can't believe there have been 1000 people *legally* killed, and still counting.

What I simply can't believe is that people are focussing on the death of this worthless piece of trash and not on the two people he killed.

On the other hand, I'll feel way more comfortable with society as a collective killing people when they can pave the roads efficiently and aren't trying to strip me of my rights.

Adrian

So because he was a piece of trash justice has to become another piece of trash to kill him? Let him rot in prison, but don't kill him. We are forever telling friends not to stoop to other people's levels yet the state in the name of justice is allowed to do it. Ha!

It's been proven time and time again that death penalty doesn't act in the least as a deterrent. Not to mention the many times an error has been discovered a long time after the so-called guilty person has been killed. Talk about playing God.

Death penalty makes me sick, and I can't believe a nation like the US thatw ill go to great lengths to put other nations to "rights" still has this Middle Ages method. It's disgusting.

You voice some very good objections, like I said, when society can pave the roads well and respect honest people's rights, I'll have less problems with it. Unfortunately, we essentially let the prisoners dictate their own treatment in the US. What types of mattresses they will and won't sleep on, the types of "toys" they get to play with outside, the movies that are put on, the resturants they order out from...I don't know of anyone who wants to pay for a child molestor to eat McDonalds three times a week and I'll be less in favor of the death penalty when society sets prison standards at or below the poverty line, or starts exiling a whole bunch of the feral losers we pay good money to pen up and ship Red Lobster to now.

How 'bout this: Everyone on death row gets their sentence commuted to exile - then they're parachuted into the wilds of Alaska with 30lbs of dry beans, a tent, and a shovel. They can live in peace and cold as long as they like and are able to scratch out a living, but they're dead men if they turn up in town, and they'll be easily recognizable because they'll have the crime they were exiled for tattooed across their forehead.

We also need to start penning up only the truly violent criminals. The standard for incarceration should be "is there a non-consenting victim?"

Adrian

PS Say what you like, but it's a proven fact, the death penalty has the lowest recidivism rate of any form of punishment.

Oh my God man...hope you or family or friends have not been victims or something like this because only then I would understand your anger.

I dont agree with the death penalty , I dont feel I have the right to choose to end someone elses life also if the evidence is wrong we can hardly bring them back !

Some prisoners actually want to be executed, look at Timothy Mcvae (oklahoma bomber) .

I do think the whole punishment system should be changed.

Dawn

I think that prisoners should be forced to live in poverty conditions, as Adrian said it isn't right for them to get what food they want and tv and such. I heard somewhere that more food is spent on a meal for a standard prisoner than for a school dinner in this country, so the criminals are getting fed better than children. That is awful.

I personally don't think the death penalty is ever right, if someone has killed they should spend the rest of their life alone in a room with nothing to do but think about what they did.

I'm against death penalty too, but I think you really need to experience it to give a judgement. I mean, if someone would do something horrible to MY friend, MY family, then I would probably agree with death penalty for him.

as if prisoners don't have to face enough in prisons (abuse from guards and other prisoners, lack of medical care, overcrowding in prisons, etc) they should be deprived from basic stuff too? and not all prisoners are killers or rapers or drug dealers you know... there are people who have commited less serious crimes but after the time they spend imprisoned they deteriorate. you should think whether prisons must exist for both punishment and rehabilitation or only for punishment.